Well I meant that it felt fine to play until I played modern games. Afterwards the age of the game became apparent.

Just did hard time in New York followed by a trip to Brazil. The real world segments are really cool given that you're so used to being in the past. Particularly the removal of the ui elements because of the lack of animus. I realise how dependant I became on screen highlights such as a red prompt for an incoming attack or forgetting which counter will throw and which will disarm and having the ui there to tell me. Now I've witnessed the declaration of independence. I'm iffy on some story elements, particularly how one escapes a noose without it being explained. But nothing to put me off.

"My favourite spot is the one where I would pick him up for an aeroplane spin and rotate as many times as possible. He’d be so dizzy that he would try to pin the referee, and I’d count to three and he’d think that he won - Daniel Bryan

I don't like how much of a dick Connor is to Achilles, particularly with how often shit hits the fan around Connor.

Hello Haytham. (!)

"My favourite spot is the one where I would pick him up for an aeroplane spin and rotate as many times as possible. He’d be so dizzy that he would try to pin the referee, and I’d count to three and he’d think that he won - Daniel Bryan

I'm really starting to dislike Connor and I'm unsure if that's the intention of the game or not. I also think I accidentally spoiled the conclusion by reading comments on a YouTube video of the lore of AC 1 which I was trying to re familiarise myself with. I glanced over something telling and quickly scrolled away but the damage is done. I guess I'll find out soon enough. Just had the third real world segment, rescuing Desmond's dad. The npcs keep alluding to Connor's story almost being over. According to the ingame metric I'm 33% complete. I've mostly ignored the open world stuff, bit of a shame really but time is precious.

"My favourite spot is the one where I would pick him up for an aeroplane spin and rotate as many times as possible. He’d be so dizzy that he would try to pin the referee, and I’d count to three and he’d think that he won - Daniel Bryan

Kind of underwhelmed with how the final 1/3 of the game went, just about every major character seemed to deserve more. Charles Lee's final moments should have been swapped with Haytham, it would have been so much more fitting and appropriate. Achilles just whimpered out. The conclusion of Desmonds story was also not as spectacular as it could have been,

I'm better able to understand the love that AC II receives having played III. The story was fun but not great and often hard to follow. Connor wasn't written well and it was difficult to care about him as a character, particularly when the bad guys had actual logic behind their actions. The music was the best part of the experience for me.

Going to take a break from AC for a bit. I know that IV is a huge endeavour and I'm burnt out from open world action games.

"My favourite spot is the one where I would pick him up for an aeroplane spin and rotate as many times as possible. He’d be so dizzy that he would try to pin the referee, and I’d count to three and he’d think that he won - Daniel Bryan

Yeah, III definitely fizzled out in the end. What really diminished my marks for it was the final chase. I still hate that entire scene for being hard for the wrong reasons. The parkour system had a tendency for the player to get caught up in inanimate objects and crowd NPC's and they littered that final scene with boxes and posts and rubberneckers for Connor to stupidly try to interact with as you're running after Lee. It would be one thing if it was done with objects that made sense within the limits of the parkour system, but to use broken game mechanics to make the game more difficult is just lazy and cheap.

As of April 1st, 2016,the first entry in my Gold & Steel fantasy series, As Fierce as Steel, is on sale. Visit www.thegoldandsteelsaga.com for more!

I have that one as well. Still in its plastic, actually. My problem with games these days isn't finding time to play them so much as it is finding time to download the big mass of updates. I only have DSL in my small town so these big downloads in the double digit GB's take a full day of consistent connectivity to complete, and that's if I don't use the internet for any other reason myself and I don't attempt the download in peak hours. That's why I haven't finished Final Fantasy XV, it's the worst culprit for these megasized updates. Every time I finish one big update, I turn the game back on.... ANOTHER BIG UPDATE.

As of April 1st, 2016,the first entry in my Gold & Steel fantasy series, As Fierce as Steel, is on sale. Visit www.thegoldandsteelsaga.com for more!

A few hours into the game and I am liking it so far. The map and the world is fucking MASSIVE! Like Black Flag's world was big but Egypt takes it to a whole other level. Bayek has a solid motivation for beginning his journey, the combat system has been changed and I think it is for the better. And the upgrades that you can do from your choice of riding animal (either a horse or camel) and other pieces of gear actually help a lot in game play.

Still really early in the game, but I am liking what I have seen so far.

I a little bit deeper into Origins, still digging it so far, here are some early thoughts.

I like Bayek as the main character, he's got a good charm and personality to him, his motivations for starting his journey are completely understandable. Too early to tell if he's in the same league as Ezio or Edward, but he is miles ahead of AC 1 Altiar (Altiar was better in Revelations) and Connor.

Bayek's wife, Aya, also seems like an interesting character, although it's too early to give a full dive of who she is, but I like what I see so far.

The new combat system and weapons I absolutely love, and the riding mechanic has gotten a lot better, it actually feels rewarding to wander off and explore the map as you discover new locations and bad ass animals along the way. The environments have been excellent, the story is pretty engaging.

Before I left to head to work, I had just met Cleopatra, so we'll see how she plays into this later.